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Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

jefftk.com

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Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#41

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

devchix wrote: post #12

> Webstaurant would ship a pallet of flour, 50 bags of 50lbs each, for $1,081 or $0.43/lb. > Unfortunately, between placing the order and them shipping it they ran out of stock Insanity! I'm heartened that people are still baking at home though. For comparison, retail King Arthur All-Purpose flour goes for about $3.69 for 5lbs, or $0.73/lb, so at $0.56/lb Sir Galahad flour is still a bargain. Whole wheat flour has br…

I question how many people are actually using the flour they're hoarding, and how many are just putting it in the back of the pantry because, "When the end of the world comes, you'll need flour!"

It's very irritating for those of us who actually bake on a regular basis and resisted the temptation to hoard for hoarding's sake.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#43

Post by radec »

davefp wrote: post #34
radec wrote: post #23

Otherwise known as a Food Buying Club. basic idea is you get enough people together to create a wholesale account with a distributor. Get your order and split it up between the members. Hippies and other Frugal people have been doing this forever (in my world forever, I grew up going to them).

Niche hobby communities do this all the time. The mechanical keyboard community wouldn't exist without group buys, they rely on them to hit minimum order quantities from producers of custom keycaps, PCBs, and other manufactured items. These are then shipped to proxy vendors around the world who do last-mile shipping to end users. Homebrew clubs also put in wholesale orders for raw materials like yeast, grain, and hop…

yes very true! It can be a great way to make purchases possible, make purchases cheaper,and/or buy less packaging.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#44

Post by radec »

jedimastert wrote: post #39
davefp wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Niche hobby communities do this all the time. The mechanical keyboard community wouldn't exist without group buys, they rely on them to hit minimum order quantities from producers of custom keycaps, PCBs, and other manufactured items. These are then shipped to proxy vendors around the world who do last-mile shipping to end users. Homebrew clubs also put in wholesale orders for raw materials like yeast, grain, and hop…

This is kind of the point behind drop.com, no?

yeah I think that is the basic premise behind drop.com. Basically just a non-localized version of it.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#45

Post by vikoonishmoog »

lokl wrote: post #21

Any (developing world) group buy experts here? Many years ago, I considered trying to organize fertilizer group buys in sub-Saharan Africa via SMS, where it seemed (to me, as a non-expert in this subject) that many smallholder farmers lacked access to affordable high-quality fertilizer and that group buying might help. I explored this enough to apply for a grant to develop it (and delivery logistics), but that didn't…

In East Africa, there are at least two operations that I'm aware of that do this among other things - One Acre Fund (https://oneacrefund.org/), and Apollo Agriculture (https://www.apolloagriculture.com/).

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#47

Post by ghaff »

vonmoltke wrote: post #40
ghaff wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people are really buying "pallets"? It's probably more like people picking up another one of those big 18-roll packages even though they're not at the point yet where they would stock up under normal circumstances. And that adds up to a lot (of a bulky product) in the aggregate.

While not pallets, I have read anecdotal reports here in NJ that stores are selling out of toilet paper within hours after opening following a restock, so it seems to be more than just buying an extra package every time someone goes to the store. The only way I have been able to get any since this started is the store I mentioned elsewhere that is selling individual institutional rolls.

TBF, the many people who don't keep a lot of extra stock in the house probably got caught out early on even as the usage was going up a lot. So there probably are genuinely people who need it at this point and they're buying more than they usually do. (And, yes, a lot of people who are in the store for other reasons may well grab a package of TP even if they don't really need it and wouldn't normally have bought it.)

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#48

Post by radec »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #41
devchix wrote: post #12

> Webstaurant would ship a pallet of flour, 50 bags of 50lbs each, for $1,081 or $0.43/lb. > Unfortunately, between placing the order and them shipping it they ran out of stock Insanity! I'm heartened that people are still baking at home though. For comparison, retail King Arthur All-Purpose flour goes for about $3.69 for 5lbs, or $0.73/lb, so at $0.56/lb Sir Galahad flour is still a bargain. Whole wheat flour has br…

I question how many people are actually using the flour they're hoarding, and how many are just putting it in the back of the pantry because, "When the end of the world comes, you'll need flour!" It's very irritating for those of us who actually bake on a regular basis and resisted the temptation to hoard for hoarding's sake.

ha very true! I think this true for all types of hoarding, doesn't matter what the thing/product is. It is just problem of hoarding.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#49

Post by geodel »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #18
devchix wrote: post #12

> Webstaurant would ship a pallet of flour, 50 bags of 50lbs each, for $1,081 or $0.43/lb. > Unfortunately, between placing the order and them shipping it they ran out of stock Insanity! I'm heartened that people are still baking at home though. For comparison, retail King Arthur All-Purpose flour goes for about $3.69 for 5lbs, or $0.73/lb, so at $0.56/lb Sir Galahad flour is still a bargain. Whole wheat flour has br…

waffles are the perfect comfort food during these times- 2c flour, 1.75c milk, 1/2c melted butter or oil, big pinch of salt, 4tsp baking powder, 2 eggs. Throw in some vanilla or other flavor concentrate if you'd like! A quick crowd pleasing recipe using all staples

Thanks for this. I am going to try your recipe.

Few months back we bought Waffle maker with great expectations. However after 2 disastrous attempts which resulted in very stogy waffles, we put that away. I was wondering should if we just buy some readymade batter that some stores sell.

Re: Organizing a Group Buy of Flour

#50

Post by devchix »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #27

This isn't really a political point as much as an observation, but... the people in this country who have the worst compensation and benefits are the ones who are involved in the harvesting and preparation of our food. To this point, the supply chain hasn't been too badly affected because poor people need to work to survive and so they'll go to work sick. But now COVID has spread all over the place, and people who ar…

Yes, just so. Some days ago I posted an NPR Planet Money article about the effect of COVID-19 on farm workers, who are mostly immigrants, and the replies to my comment was so cavalier I could not engage. "The food will be fine", no thought to the harvesters who would likely fall ill. There is a swatch of disposable workers unseen by people like these. Our local grocery was out of chicken parts for a while but now it's mostly back to normal. I'm surprised there's a run on toilet paper, yeast, and flour, but meat and produce are back on the shelves.
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